Andre Schürrle edges near Chelsea exit as Wolfsburg talks continue .
Andre Schürrle may have played his last game for Chelsea. The German is expected to sit out Tuesday’s second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final against Liverpool as Wolfsburg continue to negotiate a return for him to the Bundesliga.
The World Cup winner missed Saturday’s shock FA Cup fourth-round defeat by Bradford City, having apparently suffered a minor back injury, and that is likely to be used again to explain his absence in the semi-final. Yet the twinge is not believed to jeopardise Schürrle’s departure, a sale which, together with that of Mohamed Salah, is likely to provoke a frenzy of late transfer activity at the Premier League leaders whose interest in Fiorentina’s Juan Cuadrado and Douglas Costa at Shakhtar Donetsk is well established.
A delegation from Wolfsburg was in London over the weekend to hold talks with Chelsea over the signing of Schürrle, who has made only five Premier League starts this season. The 24-year-old, an £18m signing from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2013, had initially been inclined to remain in England until the summer in the hope that Borussia Dortmund might firm up interest in taking him back to Germany. Yet the promise of more regular first-team involvement has won him round to a mid-season move and the player’s father, Joachim, is understood to have met Wolfsburg officials for discussions on Monday.
Chelsea will seek at least £23.5m for a player who has shown flashes of his quality over his spell at the club. Whether the German side, who secured Kevin de Bruyne from Chelsea in the summer, would be willing or able to match that valuation now is uncertain. Their preference is to take the forward on loan until the end of the season with a guarantee of making the move permanent in the summer. Yet Chelsea’s intention is to reinvest the money generated by Schürrle’s sale, as well as that of Salah, to secure at least one replacement mid-season, meaning negotiations with the Bundesliga club will continue.
Chelsea’s preference would be to secure Cuadrado from Fiorentina but, at present, they are reluctant to meet the £26.8m release clause in the Colombian’s contract. “The buy-out clause is there and we put it high in order to keep him,” said the Italian club’s president, Andrea Della Valle. “I hope he will stay with us for a long time.” The alternative is Douglas Costa, who continues to agitate for a move to the Premier League with regular outbursts in the Brazilian press, while Shakhtar continue their tour of South America. His latest outpouring of enthusiasm saw him heap praise on José Mourinho and describe the prospect of joining Chelsea as “a dream for any player”.
Salah’s sale would offer more leeway in the market as the Premier League leaders attempt to comply with Uefa’s financial fair play regulations by balancing purchases with sales. An agreement has been reached with Roma in principle to loan the Egypt international for six months with a view to making that deal permanent in the summer but the Italian club are keeping their options open.
Indeed Roma are awaiting an answer themselves from Shakhtar, having submitted a bid of around £1.4m for Luiz Adriano, whose contract expires in October, and have sounded out Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk over Yevhen Konoplyanka’s availability. They intend to make a final decision by the middle of the week, effectively leaving Salah in limbo until then.
Andre Schürrle may have played his last game for Chelsea. The German is expected to sit out Tuesday’s second leg of the Capital One Cup semi-final against Liverpool as Wolfsburg continue to negotiate a return for him to the Bundesliga.
The World Cup winner missed Saturday’s shock FA Cup fourth-round defeat by Bradford City, having apparently suffered a minor back injury, and that is likely to be used again to explain his absence in the semi-final. Yet the twinge is not believed to jeopardise Schürrle’s departure, a sale which, together with that of Mohamed Salah, is likely to provoke a frenzy of late transfer activity at the Premier League leaders whose interest in Fiorentina’s Juan Cuadrado and Douglas Costa at Shakhtar Donetsk is well established.
A delegation from Wolfsburg was in London over the weekend to hold talks with Chelsea over the signing of Schürrle, who has made only five Premier League starts this season. The 24-year-old, an £18m signing from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2013, had initially been inclined to remain in England until the summer in the hope that Borussia Dortmund might firm up interest in taking him back to Germany. Yet the promise of more regular first-team involvement has won him round to a mid-season move and the player’s father, Joachim, is understood to have met Wolfsburg officials for discussions on Monday.
Chelsea will seek at least £23.5m for a player who has shown flashes of his quality over his spell at the club. Whether the German side, who secured Kevin de Bruyne from Chelsea in the summer, would be willing or able to match that valuation now is uncertain. Their preference is to take the forward on loan until the end of the season with a guarantee of making the move permanent in the summer. Yet Chelsea’s intention is to reinvest the money generated by Schürrle’s sale, as well as that of Salah, to secure at least one replacement mid-season, meaning negotiations with the Bundesliga club will continue.
Chelsea’s preference would be to secure Cuadrado from Fiorentina but, at present, they are reluctant to meet the £26.8m release clause in the Colombian’s contract. “The buy-out clause is there and we put it high in order to keep him,” said the Italian club’s president, Andrea Della Valle. “I hope he will stay with us for a long time.” The alternative is Douglas Costa, who continues to agitate for a move to the Premier League with regular outbursts in the Brazilian press, while Shakhtar continue their tour of South America. His latest outpouring of enthusiasm saw him heap praise on José Mourinho and describe the prospect of joining Chelsea as “a dream for any player”.
Salah’s sale would offer more leeway in the market as the Premier League leaders attempt to comply with Uefa’s financial fair play regulations by balancing purchases with sales. An agreement has been reached with Roma in principle to loan the Egypt international for six months with a view to making that deal permanent in the summer but the Italian club are keeping their options open.
Indeed Roma are awaiting an answer themselves from Shakhtar, having submitted a bid of around £1.4m for Luiz Adriano, whose contract expires in October, and have sounded out Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk over Yevhen Konoplyanka’s availability. They intend to make a final decision by the middle of the week, effectively leaving Salah in limbo until then.
